CISA's "CI Fortify" Guidance on Isolating Vital Systems: What It Means and How Forward Can Help
On July 28, 2026, CISA, the Australian Signals Directorate's Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), the FBI, and international partners released "CI Fortify – Advice for Isolating Vital Systems." The guidance gives critical infrastructure (CI) operators a practical framework for disconnecting vital operational technology (OT) from corporate, internet-facing, and other less-trusted networks — and for continuing to deliver essential services while isolated. Nearly every step in that framework comes down to two questions: which devices matter, and what paths connect them to everything else. This post summarizes the guidance and outlines how Forward Enterprise helps answer both. Who should read this postNetwork engineers and architects responsible for segmentation between IT, OT, and vendor/cloud networks Incident response and business continuity planners building isolation and crisis-response plan Security teams validating that segmentation and isolation controls actually work as de